It's far worse than you think

I argee with most of Dr. Pipes' points, but would like to add some comments and insights.

First, Dr. Pipes wrote: "On the face of it, its military preponderance makes victory seem inevitable. Even if Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon, Islamists have nothing like the military machine the Axis deployed in World War II, nor the Soviet Union during the cold war. What do the Islamists have to compare with the Wehrmacht or the Red Army? The SS or Spetznaz? The Gestapo or the KGB? Or, for that matter, to Auschwitz or the gulag?"

Actually, I can see military defeat for the USA. Not due to any inferiority of the military itself. Our military is second to none. However, we have a great many emasculated politicians running the war. Politicians most of whom have never even been in a schoolyard fist fight and have no idea how to conduct warfare. The American government no longer has the backbone or the intestinal fortitude it needs to send the military in with the supreme objective...win at all costs!

How can we win a war if our leaders refuse to allow our fighting men to win? Next, you wrote: "Pacifism: Among the educated, the conviction has widely taken hold that "there is no military solution" to current problems, a mantra applied in every Middle East problem – Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Kurds, terrorism, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But this pragmatic pacifism overlooks the fact that modern history abounds with military solutions. What were the defeats of the Axis, the United States in Vietnam, or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, if not military solutions?" I disagree with the word "pacifism". The more accurate description would be cowardice and emasculation. We no longer have real men, real warriors, running our wars. They're being run by milquetoast politicians who have never been in a fight in their lives and indeed have no fighting spirit.

Our entire society has been emasculated. We tremble in fear of "offending" someone in the Land of Freedom simply by saying "Merry Christmas" at Christmas time. We fret over the possibility of "offending" criminals who illegally break into our country when we hang our national flag in a neighborhood where they squat. And God forbid we even refer to a Christian God in public! That causes us sleepless nights because so many Americans do not even understand the truth about separation of church and state and therefore worry themselves sick about "offending" Muslims simply by speaking the name of God.

Our country has indeed become emasculated. We don't have the guts to fight a dirty war and to use whatever tactics we need to win. The American public has been brainwashed by liberal public schools to the point where many kids are embarrassed to be American and indeed do not even understand what makes (made?) America so special and unique in the history of mankind. Next, you wrote: "Self-hatred: Significant elements in several Western countries – especially the United States, Great Britain, and Israel – believe their own governments to be repositories of evil, and see terrorism as just punishment for past sins." Indeed.

Once again we have to look at the liberals controlling our schools, their insane moral relativism, and their love of socialism. Our schools are literally destroying the future of our country because they are poisoning the minds of our youths with politically correct, morally relativist nonsense instead of teaching truth, reality, and pride in our own country. The only people who can defeat America are Americans, and so far we've done a great job of allowing this cancerous guilt, self-hatred, and delusion to be grown and cultivated in our children. Our fate very well may be sealed at this point. You wrote: "They serve as the Islamists' auxiliary mujahideen." So very true. I think we need to start differentiating between actual free speech and sedition, then deport or jail these traitorous anti-American nutjobs instead of giving them tenure.

When college professors praise the enemy who has sworn to destroy us and when they teach our children to hate us, they become the enemy and are no less a threat to America than the terrorists walking around with bombs. In fact, Islam already has the worst weapon of mass destruction it can ever get its hands on...the American education system. That is doing more damage to our future and our way of life than any nuclear aramament ever could. You then wrote: "Complacency: The absence of an impressive Islamist military machine imbues many Westerners, especially on the left, with a feeling of disdain. Whereas conventional war – with its men in uniform, its ships, tanks, and planes, and its bloody battles for land and resources – is simple to comprehend, the asymmetric war with radical Islam is elusive. Box cutters and suicide belts make it difficult to perceive this enemy as a worthy opponent.

With John Kerry, too many dismiss terrorism as a mere "nuisance."" Again, I think complacency should be replaced with a more accurate word...emasculation. We simply do not have the fighting spirit. Society has become so convenient and so dependant on illegal labor, modern conveniences, and socialist handout programs that we have literally forgotten how to survive. We've lost the killer instinct. We've lost the will to survive. I liken this to a wild animal species that is raised in a cage and cannot be released back into the jungle because it has been emasculated by the "easy life" in captivity, and has lost the capacity to survive if forced to survive in its own in the harsh realities of the real world. Look at it this way. We have a president (who should know better) claiming that Islam is the "religion of peace", and we have commentators falling all over themselves to avoid naming the problem (Islam). Instead, they twist and contort the language to avoid naming the true threat.

We now have Islamists, Radical Islamism, Islamic Totatlitarianism, Subversive Islamic Radicals, and all sorts of misleading labels. The problem is Islam, pure and simple. It's not radicals, it's not subversives, it's not one sect or another. Islam itself is the problem because it cannot or will not civilize its adherents and it mainly supports terrorism and Islamic dominance. Even the so-called non-violent "moderate" Muslims are part of the problem in that they defend terrorism and refuse to denounce it in any significant manner. If we can't even acknowledge who or what the enemy is, how can we formulate a plan to defeat it?

Here I strongly disagree with you: "A non-violent approach – what I call "lawful Islamism" – that pursues Islamification through educational, political, and religious means, without recourse to illegality or terrorism. Lawful Islamism is proving successful in Muslim-majority countries like Algeria and Muslim-minority ones like the United Kingdom." Look at what the so-called "moderate" Muslims in the UK have done as far as terrorism goes. Look at France. What people refer to as "peaceful, moderate Muslims" is simply a fifth column subverting our western countries. They're just another tool used by the majority of Muslims who want to see the West dominated by Islam. "Lawful Islam" doesn't exist, and I have no idea where you got that idea. Algeria is successful? On which planet?

Here on Earth, Algeria is still a hotbed of terrorism, with hundreds of thousands killed and millions injured along with tens of billions of dollars in damage due to Islamic terrorism in the last decade or so. As of Sept. 2006, Algeria passed new laws which restrict or outlaw practicing any religion besides Islam. You cannot practice any religion besides Islam in a private residence. Algeria is no model of success...it's just another example of the oppressive nature of Islam itself.

I also disagree here: "A huge number of committed cadres. If Islamists constitute 10% to 15% of the Muslim population worldwide, they number some 125 to 200 million persons, or a far greater total than all the fascists and communists, combined, who ever lived." I think anyone who believes the oft-quoted "10-15%" number is either misinformed or delusional. All the polls I have ever seen show a far higher percentage of Muslims who side with the terrorists or who support Sharia law.

All the societal evidence I have ever seen shows a far higher percentage. Support for the so-called radicals amongst the so-called "moderates" in Islam is very high. We'd have to at least double those numbers, which gives us 250 to 400 million Muslims against us. That's more people than the current population of the entire United States! And we are the 3rd largest country by population. Something to think about! We are indeed headed for a new Dark Ages, and unless Americans wake up and start paying more attention to actual reality than they do to virtual reality, we are doomed. Islam would not be a threat had we not lost our self-esteem, our pride, our common sense, and our will to survive at all costs.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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Mark my comment as a response to It's far worse than you think by Noah Wilk

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".